Arts & Entertainment
Rock steady
New gay climbing group meets in Rockville
Chris Gorham at the Homo Climbtastic convention in Bishop, Calif. (Photo by Tim Kettering)
Being out in nature can be a peaceful experience and can bring a sense of calm for most people.
Being out in nature can also be a heart thumping experience depending on what you have chosen to do with your time with Mother Nature.
I once put in four days of climbing on the Appalachian Trail in the Shenandoah Valley. Considering how many rock faces I fell off during one particularly rainy day, I could have benefited by spending some time with Rainbow Climbing D.C.
This LGBT rock climbing group is a relatively new entity under the Team D.C. umbrella. Led by Chris Gorham, its members can usually be found at Earth Treks in Rockville on Tuesday and Thursday nights and sometimes on weekends. For beginners, this would be a great place to start. The club has no member dues, but the climbing fees at Earth Treks run around $20.
Rainbow Climbing D.C. has hosted two local outdoor climbs recently in Carderock, Md. The site is located on the Potomac and there is climbing available on both sides of the river. Carderock offers four top rope climbs and is a great place for beginners to try outdoor rock climbing. Gorham says it’s also a great place to hang out and the group will be planning another trip to Carderock soon.
As is the case with all the local LGBT sports clubs, there is a national organization that helps network the athletes. In rock climbing, it’s Homo Climbtastic. Its people help LGBT climbers and their local clubs connect with other climbers and clubs. Its website is also a public blog I found pretty entertaining (homoclimbtastic.com or on Facebook).
Homo Climbtastic also hosts two climbs annually and taut those as the worlds largest queer-friendly climbing conventions. Gorham just returned from the most recent convention in Bishop, Calif. One of the attractions in Bishop were two multi-pitch lead climbs with vertical elevations of 120 to 200 feet.
The next Homo Climbtastic convention will be held from July 14-18 at New River Gorge in Fayetteville, W.V. New River Gorge is the most popular rock climbing and rappelling destination in the eastern United States. Also located nearby is Summersville Lake which is a 28,000 acre body of water known nationwide for its variety of sports attractions.
At the 2010 Gay Games in Cologne, sport climbing was one of the sports contested. While Cleveland/Akron has not announced its sports for 2014, there is a good possibility that sport climbing will be on the list. Sport climbing is a style of rock climbing wherein a climber ascends a route that already has permanent bolts and anchors attached on the rock wall.
Sport climbing is considered the safest style of climbing because the climber is able to clip to the bolts which are generally 8 feet apart. The chance of falling is greatly diminished. Since the element of danger is reduced, sport climbing emphasizes the gymnastic and athletic aspects of climbing. It focuses on the development of the climber’s stamina, strength and flexibility.
According to Gorham, the best way to catch the rock climbing vibe is to put yourself out there in different locales with different climbers. Besides the group’s usual climbing at Earth Treks and the occasional Carderock trip, the climbers will also be at Sport Rock in Alexandria on May 20. For more information, find the group on Facebook under Rainbow Climbing D.C.
The 2026 Capital Pride Parade was held in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 20.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key and Landon Shackelford)
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Theater
‘Feeling Afraid’ explores life of a neurotic stand-up comic
Navigating sex, work, and possibly love in London
‘Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen’
Through July 12
Studio Theatre
1501 14th St., N.W.
$55-$102
Studiotheatre.org
Wordily yet rightly titled, solo show “Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen” dives deeply into the world of a neurotic stand-up comic as he navigates sex, work, and possibly love in London.
Busy arranging hookups and dates on “The App,” the 36-year-old gay funnyman juggles a full dance card; still he’s never been in a romantic relationship. While he’s willing to give love a shot, he’s not pressed about it. As he says, he harbors no fear of dying alone.
Currently making its American premiere at Studio Theatre, this darkly humorous Edinburgh Fringe import features terrific out English actor Steven Webb as The Comedian who’s about to explore what it means to spend all his time with one man.
At Studio’s intimate Mead Theatre, Kat Heath’s minimal set says standard comedy club (fluorescent tube lighting, the mic with a long cord, a single stool backed by a rose-colored curtain), but gay playwright Marcelo Dos Santos has conjured something much more than a live comedy set.
Yes, The Comedian bounces onstage in his red Converse high tops, jeans, and pink shirt with a huge mouth emblazoned on the back, but he delivers more than jokes. At times hilariously self-deprecating, then dark, and occasionally a lesson on what makes standup work, this is a layered, well-acted piece.
With Webb (a keen caricaturist of types and voices) playing all the parts while conducting The Comedian’s hilariously frenetic interior monologue, “Feeling Afraid” takes us through a summer of love. It seems after six chaste dates with The American, our nervous hero has found Mr. Right. The American is earnest, smart, hesitant to initiate sex. He’s also well built with a beautiful smile. And strangely, he’s been medically advised not to laugh aloud.
The Comedian delights in the joys of new love: dates, first kisses, sex, and then suddenly spending all of his time with the adored. Visits to art galleries become fun. Eating home cooked meals followed by grim documentaries is a thing. The Comedian is beguiled as his own boyish figure fills out, but something isn’t right. He can’t entirely relax.
Along the way we meet the Aussie doctor, our protagonist’s longtime hookup; a young runner with some exceptional body parts; the random third in a failed threesome; grumpy working comics, male and female; and an ineffectual counselor.
Webb gives a lightning-fast performance that boggles the mind (in terms velocity and virtuosity). He can be impish, very impish. He’s nervous energy incarnate, flashing jazz hands, grimacing but handsome when still. He’s likeable, a necessity when delivering a hilariously rude joke just feet away from two stone-faced audience members. (Perhaps they were laughing on the inside? At any rate, they stayed through the end the show.)
Produced by the team behind Fringe hits “Fleabag” and “Baby Reindeer,” small stage works that were developed into major TV screen successes, “Feeling Afraid” is funny for sure, and it’s also highly confessional, sexually explicit, and raw.
Written by Dos Santos during COVID lockdown, the piece was a smash hit in the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe before finding further success in London. Its depiction of a youngish queer guy navigating the big city rings entirely true. Like so much Fringe stuff, the one-man show is delightfully lewd and standup inspired.
One little moan: the show closes cleverly but too abruptly with its star dashing offstage without sufficiently basking in the admiration and applause of his thoroughly chuffed audience.
They say third time’s a charm, and regarding “Feeling Afraid,” I’d agree. After two performance cancellations (first for laryngitis and the second involving faulty air conditioning on an especially muggy June evening), I made my third trek to Studio where I found both the actor and AC in very fine fettle. And truly, Webb’s work was more than worth the wait.
The 2026 Baltimore Pride Festival, “Pride in the Park,” was held at Druid Hill Park on Sunday, June 14.
(Washington Blade photos by Linus Berggren)
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